NY Mayor De Blasio and Liberal Utopias

De Blasio is off to a nice start as the umber nanny state mayor that Bloomberg WISHES he could have been. First thing he does is lay out a plan to end the horse carriages in NYC. Why? Because he doesn't like them. No Really. This mayor's first thing out the block is to mess with people's livelihood's because HE doesn't care for it.

I used to think conservatives were the only people who wanted to stuff their values down other people's throats. Of course his actions have been couched in "animal rights" language. That it is inhumane to work the horses. I suppose racing them at Belmont is OK though. Here's a suggestion for people who object to horse carriages in NYC: don't ride in one. See how easy that is. And we know that the "abuse" claims made by groups are mostly false. I say mostly false because I cannot actually verify that no owner has ever never abused an animal under his or her care. But I do know that people who depend on horses for their livelihood do not have an incentive to abuse said horse anymore than a cab driver benefits from not properly maintaining his vehicle. This spring I might actually ride on one them JUST because they are being messed with by the city.

But the real point of this piece is the recent proposal by De Blasio on his "crackdown" on speeders in NYC. He says:

A panel that de Blasio created that includes the NYPD, the Department of Transportation, the Health Department and the Taxi and Limousine Commission will report back next month to pursue his goal of “Vision Zero,” which aims to reduce traffic deaths to zero.

Ahh yes, liberals and their utopias. You know the lands where no crime occurs, everyone has a 100 IQ (or 115) and nobody dies of anything remotely considered an accident. I wonder if anyone at the press conference bothered to even ask De Blasio if there is ANY metropolis ANYWHERE that has zero auto-person fatalities (or at least accidents). Because surely that would have shut that part of the conference down. But never let facts get in the way of liberals with utopia fantasies.

The second dumb thing about his proposal is the fact that there were no mentions, by him, of the fact that a large proportion of automobile-pedestrian accidents are the fault of the pedestrian. Police Commissioner Bratton did mention that fact. The number is 66% of accidents according to his statement. So how do you have the majority of accidents caused by pedestrians suddenly made into an automobile operator fault? Oh right, because like many liberals, De Blasio also doesn't care for automobiles.

Yeah, don't look at those pedestrians because they should be able to cross wherever and whenever they please, looking into their phones and not paying any attention to what's going on. Yes, there are folks who are driving under the influence (and not) who are being actually reckless. They ought to be dealt with under the law, but this show boating with weepy, depressed family members is pandering at it's worst.

It's sad that the kid was killed the other day. De Blasio SHOULD have simply allowed the police to do their job and deal with the person who did it. Perhaps order the Traffic division to look into what could be done, if anything to prevent similar situations (longer light, dedicated turn lights for vehicles, Islands) from happening. But noooooooo, showboating and talking utopia nonsense and shifting the blame onto a class of people is far better.

3 weeks in and De Blasio is already making some bad decisions. 4 more years eh?